The L’il Sis and Nooj book cover…movement, music and history in motion.

With the official release of L’il Sis and Nooj coming this week I’ve been thinking a lot about the book’s cover—and honestly, I love it more every time I look at it.

This is the fourth book I’ve published - the first three covers were designed by the small presses that published those books. I’ve liked all of them to varying degrees. If I had to rank them, I’d probably say Singer’s Circle has been my favourite cover—until now.

The L’il Sis and Nooj cover has taken that spot.

For years, my wife Kim suggested that I ask our friend Bob Coady if he’d be interested in creating a cover for one of my books. Kim worked with Bob years ago when he ran Shoreline Graphics, and we’ve stayed connected over the years. I always admired him, but I felt a little awkward asking. This wasn’t exactly a lucrative project. The ebook version of L'il Sis and Nooj is being released on a pay-what-you-want basis, and there was never any expectation that anyone involved would make much money from it.

​Still, when I finally asked, Bob immediately said yes.

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Bob, Kira, Jeff & Kim

What gave me confidence wasn’t just his artistic talent—though I had no doubt about that. It was the kind of person he is. I trusted his instincts. I trusted his judgement. Most of all, I trusted that whatever he created would come from a place of thoughtfulness and care.

The funny thing is that I’m not particularly visual myself. Kim is a photographer, and it constantly amazes me how she sees things that I simply don’t. So when Bob agreed to do the cover, I gave him enormous freedom.
​My basic direction was: “Do what you do.”

One of the unexpected joys of the process was that every couple of weeks we’d connect virtually. Bob lives in Ottawa and I’m here in Cocagne, New Brunswick. We’d talk for hours at a time, and very little of it was actually about the cover. We’d discuss books, art, life, and whatever else happened to be on our minds. The cover was always part of the conversation, but it was often the smallest part.

And because Bob is Bob, he read the entire manuscript. It’s a long novel, but he wanted to fully understand what he was trying to capture.

What I didn’t fully appreciate at first was that he wasn’t simply designing a cover. He was painting one.

The image that appears on the front of L’il Sis and Nooj is an original acrylic painting. For weeks, Bob worked on it at his dining room table, creating a piece of art that would eventually be reproduced on a six-by-nine-inch book cover. When I see him in the coming weeks, he’s going to give me the original painting, and I honestly can’t wait. The idea of owning that piece means a great deal to me.

The painting also connects beautifully to the themes of the novel.

In L’il Sis and Nooj, the main character, Evie “L’il Sis” LeGrande, develops a relationship with artist Jacob Lawrence. Lawrence was a real Harlem Renaissance painter known for his bold use of color and his vivid depictions of Black life. His work often featured striking primary colors and strong visual energy.

Bob drew inspiration from that tradition. The cover uses bold reds, blues, and yellows that immediately evoke the spirit of Lawrence’s work. But there’s another connection that emerged for me when I first saw the finished painting. At its heart, L’il Sis and Nooj imagines two groundbreaking musicians whose influence stretches far beyond the blues and early R&B of the 1930s. In my mind, they help create a bridge to the soul, funk, and rhythm-and-blues music that would follow decades later.

When I think about that musical lineage, I often find myself thinking about Marvin Gaye. His music feels connected to the emotional and melodic qualities I imagined for L’il Sis and Nooj. Looking at Bob’s painting, I was reminded of the work of Ernie Barnes, whose iconic artwork appeared on the cover of Marvin Gaye’s album I Want You. The figures on Bob’s cover aren’t as dramatically elongated as Barnes’ paintings, but they carry a similar sense of movement, rhythm, and communal energy.

Whether consciously or not, the painting seems to capture exactly what the novel is trying to do: create a pathway from the blues clubs of the 1930s to the soul, R&B, and funk that would come later.

That’s what I see when I look at it. I see movement. I see music. I see history in motion. Most of all, I see a cover that somehow understands the book.

As writers, we hope our covers do justice to the stories we’ve written. Looking at Bob’s painting, I’ve found myself thinking the opposite.

I hope the book lives up to the cover.

And honestly, the cover alone might be reason enough to download the book.

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The ebook will be available as a pay-what-you-want download from my website, www.jeffhoulahan.com. If you can afford to contribute, that’s wonderful. If you can’t, that’s wonderful too. My biggest hope is simply that people read it. There will also be a digital edition available on Amazon for 99 cents, along with a print version priced close to the actual cost of printing and shipping.

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